Annual report / Department of Public Health, Research Institute and Endemic Diseases Hospital.

  • Egypt. Maṣlaḥat al-Ṣiḥḥah al-ʻUmūmīyah. Research Institute and Endemic Diseases Hospital.
Date:
[1936]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report / Department of Public Health, Research Institute and Endemic Diseases Hospital. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    16/88 (page 6)
    The. use of pyrocatechin disulphonate of sodium as a kidney function test.—In the previous investigations on the complex compound excreted following the injection of Fouadin, it was noticed that the urine of some of the patients gave negative results showing that they do not excrete the complex compound. When these cases were inves¬ tigated as regards their kidney functions, evidence of kidney disease could be demonstrated in every one of them. This suggested that diseased kidneys are unable to excrete the complex compound as quickly as normal ones. As Fouadin is a complex organic antimony compound containing 2 molecules of pyrocatechin disulphonate of sodium, the latter com¬ pound was also injected into patients and its excretion in the urine was followed. Here again it was demonstrated that patients with kidney disease either did not excrete the compound or only in small quantities after a certain length of time. Hence the excretion of the pyrocatechin compounds following their injection were studied together with the kidney function tests on the normal as well as on patients with distributed kidney function :— (1) The test does not measure the rate of breaking down of the complete Fouadin molecule. (2) The test shows various grades of disturbance which run parallel with the degree of renal dysfunction, as suggested by the com¬ pletely negative results in the group of patients with very marked disturbance of the U.C.T., as well as high blood urea and X-ray findings. (3) The test can be considered to measure the concentrating power of the kidneys. (4) The test is valuable in detecting kidney damage in Bilhar- ziasis in cases without clinical evidence of such damage, e.g. with normal blood pressure, absence of casts in the urine, etc. (5) The investigations made show that the pyrocatechin test goes parallel with other kidney function tests. The injection of pyrocatechin disulphonate of soda can, therefore, be used with advan¬ tage to measure the concentrating power of the kidney in medical, as well as surgical affections of the urinary tract. (Published in the Archiv fur Schiffs und Tropen-Hygiene, Band 41, Nos. 11, 197, pp. 690-694.) (c) A quantitative study on the excretion of antimony.-—-Two pre¬ parations, Fouadin and tartar emetic were used in this investigation. As the principal organ for the excretion of antimony is the kidney,